Connie and Bill Postmus
Connie Postmus found her dream home on the Internet.
Postmus and her husband, Bill, had flirted with moving to the Northwest from Southern California for more than 15 years. They’d grown tired of the two-hour commutes and fast-paced lifestyle. They wanted something simpler, something easier, something friendlier.
One day last fall, she was browsing Realtor.com when she came upon a house overlooking Hauser Lake.
“I thought, ‘This is unbelievable,’ ” says Connie of the white colonial with the one-acre lot the couple moved into in January. “I could not be happier.”
“It’s a slower pace here,” says Bill, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy. “It’s not as stressful.”
Bill now works about four hours each day from his Hauser Lake home, using e-mail and the telephone to help oversee the law enforcement and leadership charter school he founded in Hesperia, Calif., in 2001.
“When I worked for the Sheriff’s Department, I drove two hours each way,” he says. “That’s my workday now.”
Why North Idaho?
Nearly everyday, Connie sees deer and wild turkeys ambling across her lawn. On the days she doesn’t, she can look to her home décor, which is filled with sculptures and photographs of wildlife.
“This is unreal,” she says. … “It’s a dream come true.”
“A lot of my friends are up here already,” says Bill, explaining that many Southern California law enforcement officers retire to the area. “It’s a really great place.”
Real Estate
The couple spent vacations traveling around the Northwest. They looked seriously at Bozeman. They bought and later sold wooded property close to Priest River and a condominium at Twin Lakes.
Hauser Lake offered the benefits of a rural life with big-city convenience.
“I’m 15 miles from a new mall, 25 miles from the airport, 15 miles from Coeur d’Alene,” Connie says.
“We looked at a lot of different areas,” Bill says. “This is so close to everything. We’ve got a view of the lake. It’s the best of everything right here.”
Settling in
Connie says she misses her two grown children and four grandsons, who she contacts daily by e-mail and cell phone. She also misses acting in community theaters. But she’s confident she’ll find a place in the many small theaters around the Spokane and North Idaho area. And with summer on the way, she and her husband can soon get their boat in the lake.
Bill says he keeps busy with his work and his daily ritual – a seven-mile run around Hauser Lake, which, Connie notes, he does “while I sit here drinking my coffee.”
Community
“Everyone here is so neighborly compared to California,” says Connie, adding that their small, 20-home development hosts two big parties each year. “We could not ask for more.
“We feel like the Lord picked it out for us.”